The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-25

they maker Did they part with few
dollars, or comforts, and there let the
matter rest? Did they give few days,
or a brief space of their time to the SER
vice of their Master or did they stand
ready to part with everything, and for
sake all they had, for the sake of the
truth, and for universal right and ap-
proving heavenp
A broad distinction lies between
Christianity and the other religions
which have prevailed in the world, as
it respects the principle and mode of
diffusion. 1t is distinction in which
all possible conditions of a pure mis-
sionary and universal religion is being
fulfilled in the former. In substance
and purpose, and by indefeasible right,
Christianity was to be propagated
throughout the earth. Like the sun it
was to shine upon every cline, and like
the air it was to be the breath of life to
all peoples, and kindreds, and tongues
and nations. 1t is here that we stand
for the wretched prisoner of sin; here
for the cruelly-t treated criminal; here
for the rights of all men, and here for
the salvation Of the world. Jesus rose
at once by the very spirit which was the
genius of the new faith to this sublime
missionary position. He saw and an
nounced it rs clearly when he walked
there in Palestine, as he sees it to-day
when he looks down from heaven.
This doctrine of one God, the heavenly
Father Of us all, and one human broth
erhood, was itself a winged word, which
the very elements of the souls of men
conspired to bear over the earth. 1t
was language which all tongues could
speak, and all hearts understand. II
was a word that was nigh us. 1t was
in our mouths, and in our hearts, this
word of faith which we preach.
1t was to this grand conception of a
kingdom of love and good will all over
the world, that Christ arose, and it was
in itself credential of divine authority
and power. And if it be asked then,
"In what is Christianity superior to all
| other religions, and how has it made an
advance upon all others We answer,
waving many other claims, certainly
in this respect at least, that it compre-
hends in its purposes of blessing, the
whole family Of man. 1t is mission
of good to all the human race, and
leagues all in effort for the elevation of
all. And our religion has to be made
all this, a life and spirit, power and
an energy, an inspiration working with
in us, and through us, to all cumulative
and practical ends. 1t is all this, the
gospel of unselfshness, of ministering,
and doing for others, and the glory and
blessedness of the world, or it is the
gospel, with the gospel left out. May
we not say that heaven was so full of
love that it could not contain it, and so
it found its way down into the world of
humanity, and getting into the hearts
Of men, it is going everywhere, and do
ing good as it can. Love is never sell
fish. 1t does not seek its own, but is
ever seeking recipients outside of itself.
And so God was in Christ, moving by
the manifestation of the spirit of love
and goodness, sinful world to love
him, and to love all goodness and right
eousness. And what is the philanthropy
of missions but the martyrdom of love-
Christ flying on wings to comfort and
console, and appearing on our earth the
friend Of sinners, and the guide to i'm
mortality. The very spirit of true re-
ligion is that it shall be in motion and
connection, and be working itself out
in life and character. If it lives in our
hearts at all, it must be as a missionary
spirit, aggressive upon all surrounding
systems of error which have for so
many ages been crushing out the better
life of humanity. The world was in a
perishing condition at the time that
Christ appeared. 1t was full of evils to
be removed, wrongs to be righted, suf-
ferings to be relieved. 1t needed to be
lifted up out of its worldliness, and sell
fishness, its bestialities and barbarisms,
its heathenisms, and sensualisms, its
corruptions, and passions and follies,
into some degree of Christian manhood,
out of its waywardness and wanderings,
into virtuous courses of conduct. And
while so many are seeming to have no
higher purpose of their own, than to
seek out some expedient to get to heaven
by, with us it is not so much what
Christianity can do for man at death,
and beyond the grave, as in what he
can be stimulated and prompted to do
for himself by its aid here and now,
while it is to- day, inasmuch as here in
the present world of real and positive
evils, and in the immediate and press
ing need of the place and the hour, all
the danger and all the duty lies.
There is something far worse than
the imagined evils of the future world,
of which our ministers so often declaim.
1t is the terrible curse of sin itself, the
blighting and whitening of moral and
spiritual death. 1t is the oppressive
l.